Abstract LB107: A precision DNA methylation test to triage HPV positive women before referral to colposcopy-driven biopsies or ablative treatment in cervical cancer screening clinics worldwide
Authors: Laura Palmieri, Fernando Zamuner, Yessy Cabrera, Jafet Ortiz-Quintero, Dieila Giomo De Lima, Ana Purcell-Wiltz, Amanda García-Negrón, Ashley Ramos-López, Mariana Brait, David Sidransky, Annabelle Ferrera, Rafael E. Guerrero-Preston
Journal: Cancer Research (2023)

Abstract Cervical cancer is one of the most common cancers in women. Despite progress in prevention through Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) vaccination and success in early detection of cervical cancer through cytologic screening and HPV detection, there remains an unequal cervical cancer burden in low-resource settings, both in developed and developing countries. We have previously shown that the CervicalMethDx test can provide a Cervical Intraepithelial Neoplasia (CIN) grade 2-3 risk score, by assessing DNA methylation in a panel of three human genes (ZNF516, FKBP6 and INTS1) in samples from the United States (US), Puerto Rico, and Chile. We now tested the performance of the CervicalMethDx test on HPV-positive CIN2 and CIN3 cases (n=113) from Honduras collected from participants in the ESTAMPA clinical trial (NCT01881659). ESTAMPA (EStudio multicéntrico de TAMizaje y triaje de cáncer de cuello uterino con pruebas del virus del PApiloma humano; Spanish acronym) is a multicentric study of cervical cancer screening with HPV testing and assessment of triage methods in Latin America, which has accrued close to 50,000 participants from twelve recruitment centers in nine Latin American countries since 2013. We hypothesized that the CervicalMethDx test can identify HPV positive women most likely to be diagnosed with CIN grades 2 and 3 by anatomic pathologists, before they are referred to colposcopy-driven biopsies. We assessed DNA methylation by quantitative Real Time Methylation Specific PCR (qMSP) analysis of sodium bisulfite-modified genomic DNA. Primers and probes were previously designed to specifically amplify the promoters of the 3 genes of interest and the promoter of a reference gene, β-actin, to assess DNA input. We performed blinded retrospective studies on well-characterized clinical samples in PreservCyt sample transport media (ThinPrep, Hologic), comparing DNA methylation levels in samples from Honduras and 88 HPV-positive previously tested US samples with No Intraepithelial Lesions or Malignancy (NILM), as controls. Our results showed that the CervicalMethDx test can correctly classify 96% of CIN2 (n=62) samples with 92% Sensitivity, 98% Specificity, and an AUC of 0.96 as well as 97% of CIN3 (n=51) samples with 96% Sensitivity, 98% Specificity, and an AUC of 0.97. Moreover, the assay correctly classified 96% of CIN2-CIN3 samples combined (n=113) with 95% Sensitivity, 98% Specificity, and AUC of 0.97, when compared to samples with NILM (n=88). Our results suggest that the CervicalMethDx test is a new and valuable tool to stratify HPV positive women prior to colposcopy-driven biopsies in developed countries and ablative treatment in developing countries, most of which are unnecessary. These results warrant further evaluation of the CervicalMethDX test in prospective, population-based studies, assessing the use of precision DNA methylation algorithms to triage HPV positive women before referral to colposcopy-driven biopsies or ablative treatments in cervical cancer screening clinics world-wide. Citation Format: Laura Palmieri, Fernando Zamuner, Yessy Cabrera, Jafet Ortiz-Quintero, Dieila Giomo De Lima, Ana Purcell-Wiltz, Amanda García-Negrón, Ashley Ramos-López, Mariana Brait, David Sidransky, Annabelle Ferrera, Rafael E. Guerrero-Preston. A precision DNA methylation test to triage HPV positive women before referral to colposcopy-driven biopsies or ablative treatment in cervical cancer screening clinics worldwide [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2023; Part 2 (Clinical Trials and Late-Breaking Research); 2023 Apr 14-19; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2023;83(8_Suppl):Abstract nr LB107.